The idiomatic phrase “make no bones about it,” used to state a fact that allows no room for doubt, comes from 15th century England.  When people wanted to show their dissatisfaction with something, they would say that they “found bones in it,” referring to unwanted bones that could be found in soup.  If you had no bones in your soup, it was ingested without difficulty.  This also supports the stereotype that English food is miserable.

Most of us are familiar with Big Ben, one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom.  Peter Pan flew by it (why does Peter Pan keep coming up whenever I try to explain a fact?— sorry). What I didn’t realize was that Big Ben referred to the massive bell inside the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London, not the clock itself.  23 feet in diameter, the clock first started ticking on May 31, 1859.  Behind the clock face, we find Big Ben (officially known as the Great Bell).  There are a couple theories behind the nickname.  One is that it’s named after English boxer Ben Caunt, but the most commonly accepted theory is that it’s named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a politician and civil engineer who oversaw the installation of the bell.  There have been instances since its creation, when the clock tower had to slip under the radar.  For 2 years during World War I, the bells were muted and the clock was darkened at night to thwart German zeppelin attacks.  In World War II, the clock was again darkened so it wouldn’t guide the Blitz pilots.  In 1978, the clock was again dimmed following an unexplained infestation of werewolves (of London).